Review & Excerpt: Barbarian's Prize by Ruby Dixon

Barbarian's Prize (Ice Planet Barbarians #5) by Ruby Dixon

Publication Date: February 28th 2023 by Berkley

Pages: 304

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Tiffany is one of the last human women on available “Not-Hoth” with the others having resonated and mated. So she’s inundated with male attention, something she doesn’t feel comfortable with at all.  Tiffany isn’t interested in any male after her time in the “bad” alien’s spaceship.  The abuse and assaults she suffered, which she has yet to share with anyone else, has made any male attention repugnant.  That is except for Salukh. He doesn’t pressure her like the other males and it’s easy to talk to him about her time and life on Earth and soon she finds herself confiding bits of her horrific time on the spaceship.

Salukh is sure Tiffany is his mate, but can’t understand why they haven’t resonated yet. He’s patient though, even more so when he finds out what she’s been through and sets about to win her friendship first and then her heart. I loved Salukh.

My heart went out to Tiffany in this installment. The sa-khui men didn’t mean to make her uncomfortable and it’s not their fault since Tiffany hasn’t told anyone the reasons why the attentions are so difficult for her. I felt bad for the guys that participated in the contests for Tiffany that Josie set up. Salukh suffered too because Tiffany wouldn’t speak up, but at the same time I know she went through hell so I couldn’t fault her too much. With Tiffany’s past experience you might think we’d skip the major sexy times present in the previous books, but that’s not the case. It is a more of a slow burn to start but grows into a sexy inferno! This series is hot stuff!

Barbarian’s Prize dealt with the aftermath of serious trauma, but was balanced with snarky, fun humor so it wasn’t predominately dark. I laughed at the bits with Chompy and smiled when Tiffany spent time with the new babies. Ice Planet Honeymoon is included in this Berkley special edition, which was a complete delight! Loved getting more of Chompy (too cute and funny!) and seeing Tiffany and Salukh get their HEA!

4 Stars

Excerpt:

Book Description:

Tiffany doesn’t care about all the attention she’s getting from the alien men, but there is one particular hunter she can see herself with—if only she can find a way to move forward from the past. . . .

It’s hard being the most popular girl on the ice planet. The alien men are falling all over themselves to impress me in the hopes that I’ll take them to my furs. But they don’t know my secrets. And they don’t realize that behind my smile, I just wish they’d take their courting presents and their competitions for my affection and go away. I want to be left alone. But on a planet where women are a scarcity, that won’t be happening.

If I had to choose a mate . . . it’d be someone with a gorgeous blue body, big horns, and the most intense gaze ever. Someone who knows the truth of what happened to me and why I don’t like attention. Patient, handsome Salukh knows my secrets. He knows why I have nightmares and why I don’t trust anyone. He’s willing to let me “experiment” with him. I can use him. Take what I need from him to work through my trauma. He’s been a good friend and the best shoulder to cry on.

There’s one small problem.

When it comes to us, he doesn’t just want to be my friend. He wants to be my forever. And day by day, he’s getting harder to resist. . . .

About the author:

Ruby Dixon is an author of all things science fiction romance. She is a Sagittarius and a Reylo shipper, and loves farming sims (but not actual housework). She lives in the South with her husband and a couple of geriatric cats, and can’t think of anything else to put in her biography. Truly, she is boring.